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Clairmont
Jail by
Mike Cox | |
A
noted outlaw, the story goes, lies on his death bed mortally wounded by a Texas
Ranger's well-placed .45 slug.
"Tell me who you rode with and where I
can find 'em," the state lawman orders the dying badman.
"Can you keep
a secret?" the pale felon whispers, barely able to talk.
"You bet your
boots I can," the Ranger replies.
"So can I," the outlaw says shortly
before dying with his boots on.
And so does the graffiti-covered old
jail in what little is left of the West Texas community of Clairemont,
once the seat of Kent County.
Named after Alamo defender Andrew Kent,
the county was organized in 1892. A land dealer named R.L. Rhomberg donated a
town site for a county seat named in honor of a young family member, Claire Becker.
|
| | "The
Courthouse burned on April 12, 1955, at about 9:00pm - 9:30pm." - J. J. Montgomery.
The second floor was destroyed by the fire.
1939 photo courtesy TXDoT |
A
two-story courthouse with an attic and cupola became the hub of a new community
that soon featured all the amenities, from general store to post office to livery
stable.
County officials had the jail built in 1895 of red sandstone quarried
from a feature southeast of town on the 0-0 Ranch called Treasure Butte. The first
floor of the 18 by 24-foot building held a steel cage containing four cells. While
a state-of-the-art facility in every other regard, the new lockup did not feature
indoor plumbing and never did. Inmates had to use an outhouse. |
| | Old
jail ruins in Clairemont
Photo courtesy Erik Whetstone, Nov 2003 |
For
their money, Kent County tax payers got themselves a sturdy slammer, known across
West Texas as virtually escape-proof. In fact, local lore has it that only one
inmate ever made it outside of his own volition - except to go to the outhouse.
The prisoner somehow managed to get out of the jail and hotfoot it across
the street, where he ran up the stairs in the courthouse and hid in the cupola
atop the building. After going without food for a couple of days while the sheriff
and others searched for him, the hungry escapee decided a meal behind bars beat
freedom and a growling stomach.
What got him in the clink in the first
place is not mentioned in the telling of the story in Jewell Pritchett and Erma
Black's 1983 book "Kent County and Its People."
Kent County must have
had its share of miscreants and felons over the years, not to mention unwelcome
visitors up to no good, but the nature of crime in the county goes unreported
in their book.
While acknowledging that their county once had "a wild
and tough reputation" and had seen many "brutal crimes" in its early history,
the authors wrote: "These stories have been told repeatedly by fledgling writers
who often glorified the evil deeds done to make the sensational stories even more
gruesome and gory than was factual."
Those crimes, the authors continued,
included "cowardly murders, where the victim was shot in the back" and the occasional
lynching. And it does not strain credulity to suppose that at one time or another
someone might even have rustled a cow or two or "borrowed" a horse and forgot
to return it.
"Those dark days are gone," the county historian concluded,
"and old enmities are best forgotten. We do not care to stir up any new problems
nor to open closet doors long since sealed."
That sentiment may explain
why the old jail has no official state historical marker to tell visitors anything
about its history. Across the highway, in front of what's left of the old courthouse,
is a granite marker commemorating Kent County's 90th anniversary. But the polished
stone offers no details other than a listing of the original county officials
and does not mention the old jail or why both buildings stand abandoned and vulnerable
to vandals.
Indeed, the biggest crime in Clairemont history may have been
the "theft" of its status as county seat, an event that transformed it into the
ghost town it is today.
When a rail line came through the county in 1909,
it bypassed Clairemont by
10 miles in favor of the community of Jayton.
Clairemont slowly declined
while Jayton grew. In 1952, county residents voted to move the county seat to
Jayton. The courthouse
and jail stood abandoned by 1954. |
| | "The
old Kent County courthouse [as community center today.]
The jail is on the
right side across the street, about 500 feet from the courthouse." - Barclay
Gibson, June 2005 |
Not
long after county officials moved their offices to Jayton,
a fire heavily damaged the old courthouse. The county had what was left of the
second story removed and restored the first floor for use as a community center.
The Clairemont post office finally closed in 1970 with the retirement of the last
postmaster.
As for Kent County's "dark days," until someone takes the time
to wade through rolls of newspaper microfilm and pour over the county's criminal
dockets, assuming those records have remained intact, the old jail's secrets will
keep.
See
also Kent County
Jail
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